I used to spend hours in the library reading books about Greek and Roman mythology. It was like a soap opera about tall, magical creatures. I'd still spend hours in Ateneo's library if I had a student i.d. but that's another story. My love for the gods and their wacky, overl-dramatic stories may be why I enjoyed Percy Jackson and the Lightning thief, given its many flaws.
The movie, based on the book by Rick Riordan, does not waste any time. The adventure immediately rolls out in front of us as a giant Poseidon rises from the ocean to meet with Zeus. Zeus's most powerful weapon, a lightning bolt has been stolen. And he thinks it's Poseidon's demigod son, Percy, who stole the lightning. Why he thinks this is so, I have no idea. Then we're off to an adventure within an adventure within an adventure.
Percy has to go to Olympus and convince Zeus that he didn't steal the bolt.To do that, he must first train in Camp Half Blood, sort of like Harry Potter's Hogwarts, but with swords. After a half-day of training, he defeats the daughter of Athena, who's been training all her life. It defies logic but another adventure is soon upon us. His mother gets kidnapped by Hades so he has to go to hell and bring her back. But now, our Percy needs to collect 3 pearls which would help them get away from Hades once they're in hell. And so he meets Medusa, the hydra and visits the land of the lotus people. And Percy is so busy he doesn't even have time to grieve for his mother whom he thought was dead. (Maybe he got a peek at the script and knew she was alive anyway.) We don't even have enough time to really get to know Percy or his other friends and they end up flat.
And soon we reach the end and the movie feels less epic than its trailer. This could be because of their attempt to give the characters, the gods in particular, a modern twist, perhaps to make them more relatable, or to help kids easily identify ancient greek mythological creatures. The movie has literally shrunk the gods and thus made them a tad mediocre.
But still I enjoyed watching Percy, it's like playing a video game.
I give Percy a C+
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